Pinker’s deep studies of language have led him to insights into the way that humans form thoughts and engage our world. He argues that humans have evolved to share a faculty for language, the same way a spider evolved to spin a web.
In 2003, Harvard recruited Pinker for its psychology department from MIT. Time magazine named Pinker one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004.
Watch this video (there are 2 parts, 10 minutes each…here is part two) take notes and respond to these questions:
- Describe our physiological reaction to swears
- List the five “Contents of Swears” and explain the emotions that these types of words elicit
- What are the five reasons that people swear? Are any of these reasons unreasonable? Are there other reasons?
- Why do we need dysphemisms? What are the functions and dysfunctions of dysphemisms?
- What are the functions of idiomatic swearing?
- How and why are swears culturally specific?
- In conclusion, why do we swear? Oh, and why do authorities try to cease our swearing?
